Illinoistocht

A bit belated but I thought I should post on one of the last (if not the last) major running marathon of the season.  I watched the end of it live on Universal Sports television, and noticed that that the NYC weather was a cool, grey, early November fall day, complete with falling leaves in Central Park--winter is just around the corner. 

Meb Keflezighi became the first American to win the NYC Marathon since 1982.  Meb emigrated to the US with his family from Eritrea when he was 12 and now trains much of the year in the Sierras in Mammoth Lakes, California with fellow runners including Deena Kastor.  Besides the winners, roughly 40,000 other participants made their way through the five boroughs of New York City enroute to the finish in Central Park (which, by the way, happens to be about right where what was called "skater's curb" a decade ago when I lived in NYC as it was where the inline skaters congregated).  Other participants included Olympic speed skater Dan Jansen, who finished in 3 hours and 41 minutes.  A few minutes behind him was actor Edward Norton.  In an article in the NY Times, Mr. Norton mentioned he battled shin splints and tendon strain by focusing on a mantra from Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami: "pain is inevitable...suffering is optional".  The quote comes from the book, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Haruki's non-fiction essays about distance and marathon running.  I had just read this book and it brought back a lot of great memories of being a distance runner entering amateur, weekend events and finishing "somewhere in the pack".  Not a bad gift idea if you have a runner on your Christmas gift list.